Caleb Love ejected for being the victim of a head butting
The end of the rivalry game between the Arizona Wildcats and Arizona State Sun Devils turned ugly on Saturday as ASU's BJ Freeman headbutted Zona's Caleb Love. As you'd expect, an ejection for Freeman followed, but also one for Love.
The Wildcats led by nine with 30 seconds left in the game when Freeman and Love clashed inside the key. The two players turned face-to-face, then Freeman when full Zinedine Zidane.
Love stumbled backwards and immediately tried to get the attention of the refs while his teammates quickly moved to pull him back to the bench. For reasons that still aren't entirely clear, the refs assesssed double technical fouls and ejected both players.
Caleb Love has been ejected after a confrontation with Arizona State's BJ Freeman. pic.twitter.com/sQx2iMjblB
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) February 1, 2025
My best guess is the officials gave Love a technical for talking and not immediately removing himself to the bench. Either way, ejecting him for being angry that he got headbutted is a wild decision. Frankly, Love's reaction was relatively calm considering Freeman's actions.
We see this in sports all the time. There's an instigator and a retaliator. The latter usually gets popped by the officials. In this case, Love hardly retaliated.
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